This is the tale that began in 2006 in my first year of beekeeping in Atlanta, GA. ...there's still so much to learn.

Welcome - Explore my Blog

I've been keeping this blog for nine years and I began my 10th year of beekeeping in April 2015. Now there are about 1250posts on this blog. . Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

Even if you find one post on the subject, I've posted a lot on basic beekeeping skills like installing bees, harvesting honey, inspecting the hive, etc. so be sure to search for more once you've found a topic of interest to you. And watch the useful videos and slide showson the sidebar. All of them have captions. Please share posts of interest via Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here. Along the way, I've passed a number of certification levels and am now a! Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Monday, May 08, 2006

How to light a smoker and other things I learned at the Folk School

I learned many things at the Folk School workshop.

1. How to light a smoker

Virginia used wood shavings. She lit a few at the bottom of the smoker and then built the fire up from there. I am lousy at lighting the smoker, but I think I have been packing it too full before starting it. She dumps it all out when she's through and starts over each time. I have left the unburned fuel in mine after using and just stopped it up to end the fire.These are a little out of focus because I was taking them while wearing my bee suit and veil and it was awkward to take pictures.

2. How to use a honey extractor.

We took the extractor apart to clean it and then didn't know how to get it together. It took five of us working together before Charles, a class member, finally got it right! That's probably the beginning of a good beekeeper joke - how many beekeepers does it take to put together an extractor? (someone will have to supply the funny answer) For us, it would be one: Charles, but it took five of us klutzing around before we found the answer.

3. How to melt and use beeswax.

Virginia's secret was to pour the wax through the control top part of (unused of course) control top panty hose to filter out any extra stuff from the comb and frames that might accidentally be in the wax. She poured into a 1 liter plastic bottle which is just the right thickness to handle the heat of the hot wax.

4. How to use the hive tool.

I've been using the curved end. Virginia almost exclusively uses the straight end and this allows less of what I end up doing - breaking into comb and causing drips of honey and damage to the comb.

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Linda in her beesuit

New Atlanta Beekeeping Meetup Group

The third meeting of Atlanta Beekeeping Naturally is Thursday, August 13 from 6:30 - 7:45 at the 11Alive conference room at One Monroe Dr. in Atlanta (30324). In July we talked about small hive beetles. Members requested that the August discussion be on healthy wax, so that's our subject for the meeting!

Want to talk bees with like-minded beekeepers who want to discuss things about bees?

It's hard in a bee meeting to have time to discuss interesting topics because the speaker takes all the time. We thought it would be great to have a group to encourage discussion about beekeeping as naturally as possible. We plan to meet once a month.

For now we are meeting the second Thursday of the month . We'd love it if you joined us for interesting discussions about keeping bees in the many ways that people do. Click here to find our Meetup group page: Atlanta Beekeeping the Natural Way.

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Great Quote from Richard Taylor, beekeeper and writer

"There are a few rules of thumb that are useful guides. One is that when you are confronted with some problem in the apiary and you do not know what to do, then do nothing. Matters are seldom made worse by doing nothing and are often made much worse by inept intervention." --The How-To-Do-It book of Beekeeping, Richard Taylor

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Since I added this counter in May 2009, visitors have come to this site from 201 countries - the most recent being Guinea! The top four countries from which visitors come are the US, Great Britain, Canada, and Turkey.

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Thanks for visiting my blog and following my beekeeping adventure!

This site is listed on many websites across the country as a good site for beginners to visit. Blogger tells me that there are over 1170 posts on this blog for you to explore. There are slide shows and videos on the sidebar addressing beekeeping challenges like harvesting, solar wax melters, and doing hive inspections.

I may have already addressed a bee issue which is on your mind. The search feature will send you to the most recent post on a subject. Be sure to keep looking because I've posted a lot on many issues. Use the Google search feature on this page will help you search this site to find posts dealing with your question.

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